DOCSLIB.ORG

Nasal Cycle Dilemma: Nasal Cycle Is Associated to Brain Wake/REM States Or Is Associated to Conscious State in Them?

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Nasal Cycle Dilemma: Nasal Cycle Is Associated to Brain Wake/REM States Or Is Associated to Conscious State in Them? Open Journal of Biophysics, 2019, 9, 1-9 http://www.scirp.org/journal/ojbiphy ISSN Online: 2164-5396 ISSN Print: 2164-5388 Nasal Cycle Dilemma: Nasal Cycle Is Associated to Brain Wake/REM States or Is Associated to Conscious State in Them? Atanas Todorov Atanasov Department of Physics and Biophysics, Medical Faculty, Trakia University, Stara Zagora, Bulgaria How to cite this paper: Atanasov, A.T. Abstract (2019) Nasal Cycle Dilemma: Nasal Cycle Is Associated to Brain Wake/REM States or Experimental and theoretical arguments have been described in favor of the Is Associated to Conscious State in Them? hypothesis that the nasal cycle reversals of the nostril’s airflow occurs only in Open Journal of Biophysics, 9, 1-9. the consciousness states of the brain (during awake/wake state, REM state https://doi.org/10.4236/ojbiphy.2019.91001 and during dreams in St.1, 2 of the non-REM sleep). This finding gives possi- Received: October 17, 2017 bility to use nasal cycle as “marker for consciousness states”. An idea for clin- Accepted: December 14, 2018 ical application of the hypothesis is proposed. Published: December 17, 2018 Keywords Copyright © 2019 by author and Scientific Research Publishing Inc. Nasal Cycle, Sleep Cycle, Consciousness, EEG Waves This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution International License (CC BY 4.0). http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ 1. Introduction Open Access The nasal cycle defines as switch of dominate nostril airflow from left to right side and reverse is well studied during diurnal period of the day over healthy persons in awake (wakefulness) consciousness state [1] [2]. During diurnal time, the periods of the nasal cycle may have duration between 1.0 and 5.0 hours with mean duration during wakefulness about 1.5 hours [3]. The diurnal nasal cycle has random pattern under influence of various psychophysical factors [4] [5] [6]. During the night sleep, the switch of the nostrils occurred nearly in the same in- terval with periodicity multiplies by one sleep cycle ~1.5 h. In this case, the mean duration of the nasal cycle is about 3 h with dominance of the 3 h nasal cycles (60%), 1.5 h nasal cycles (30%) and 1.5 h nasal cycles (10% from all cases) [7] [8]. The experimental studies of Atanasov et al. [7] [8] and Kimura et al. [9] have shown the nasal cycle during night sleep is mutually connected to REM stages of the sleep. The experimental results have shown the change of dominate nostril airflow occurs during one of the stages of REM sleep and never not happening DOI: 10.4236/ojbiphy.2019.91001 Dec. 17, 2018 1 Open Journal of Biophysics A. T. Atanasov during slow-wave sleep. The principal situation of the nasal cycle reversals (NCR) during diurnal and night (sleep) time is shown in Figure 1. The modern concept for wakefulness (awake/wake) and REM stage of the sleep is both to be considered as consciousness states [11] (see Figure 2). The consciousness is ambiguous concept, which is focused on multi-disciplinant de- bates concerning the cells sensation [12] and the animals psych functions [13]. However, up to now, there is no universal definition for consciousness covering all its essential characters. Recently, the awake/wake consciousness regard as “primary consciousness state”, wireless the REM stage of the sleep regard as “secondary consciousness state” or “proto-consciousness” state [11] [14]. The clinically defined consciousness is characterized by two main components-awareness and arousal [15]. The presence of one or both of these consciousness components gives reason to believe that the given person is in a consciousness or is near to consciousness state. During diurnal period of the day the healthy person normally is in waking consciousness. In this state of consciousness, the sensation and perception are Figure 1. Principal scheme of the nasal cycle reversal during wakefulness and REM stages of the sleep (unpublished data by Atanasov [7] [10]). (a) Record of the breathing streams through the left and right nostrils during diurnal (wakefulness) time and night (sleep) time. (b) Nasal cycle periodicity (arrows shows the moments of the nasal cycle reversals). Figure 2. The principal scheme of consciousness states of the brain. Legend: awake and REM consciousness refers to daytime and to sleep (dream) time, respectively. Sleep stages 1 and 2, which are neighboring to awake and REM stages are taken as consciousness states during dream. DOI: 10.4236/ojbiphy.2019.91001 2 Open Journal of Biophysics A. T. Atanasov vivid and externally generated. The thought is logical and progressive. The movement is continuous and voluntary. The characteristics of consciousness during night sleep are poorly studied. The sleep is divided to non-REM and REM stages, which alternate in a certain sequence forming about 1.5 hours pe- riods [16]. It is established that in REM “proto-consciousness” stage of the sleep there is reason to consider that there is “minimum threshold” of consciousness [11] [14]. In “REM proto-consciousness” the sensation and perceptions are vivid and internally generated, and the thought is illogical and bizarre. The movement is command but inhibited. Whatever, just in REM stages of the sleep, it becomes about 84% NCR between the nostrils [7] [8] [9]. During the non-REM stages of the sleep the sensation and perception are absent. If the sleeper is awakened from REM sleep, dream recall rates are very high, between 80 and 90 percent of the awakenings yield some kind of dream report [17]. Even after non-REM awakenings (in stage 2), some mental content has been reported quite often [18]. Some researchers [17] [18] advocate the hypothesis that the mind never sleeps, that is, dreaming of some kind is present during the entire sleep process. According to other authors [19], sleep that contains dream is considered as conscious state, while dreamless sleep is unconscious. Lucid dreams are reported far more often in REM sleep too [19] [20] [21]. In fact, the lucid dreams could be considered a hybrid state combining essential elements of REM sleep and wak- ing consciousness. Therefore, dreams are the event that defines the conscious- ness. The studies of Foulkes [22] and others researches [23] [24] [25] showed that dream-like mentation may occur during non-REM stage of sleep and more precisely in the neighborhood of the awake state St.1 and St.2 of sleep [25]. “Light sleepers” can experience dreaming during stage 2 non-REM sleep, whe- reas “deep sleepers”, upon awakening in the same stage, are more likely to report “thinking” but not “dreaming”. Despite this wealth of descriptive information about the stages of sleep, the functional purposes of the various sleep states are not known. Whereas most sleep researchers accept the idea that the purpose of non-REM sleep is at least in part restorative, the function of REM sleep remains a matter of considerable controversy. The main difference between REM and non-REM dream is the mental content of activity. However, the dreams in REM and non-REM sleep differ by many characteristics, and mean only 40% of vo- lunteers-sleepers associated dreaming with non-REM sleep [14] [17] [26] in comparison to mean 80% of sleepers associated dreaming with REM sleep [17] [26] [27]. Thus, the non-REM sleep can present some consciousness state in St.1, 2 of the sleep [27]. Figure 3 shows a principal scheme of connection between the consciousness states and NCR in humans. Recently, there is enough experimental evidence for association between the conscious states and NCR. Indeed, the association between the nasal cycle re- versals and awake/wake state and REM stages is well documented [7] [8] [9], while the connection between the NCR and St.1, 2 is under consideration. In the study of Atanasov et al. [7] 75% of the NCR are associated to REM sleep and DOI: 10.4236/ojbiphy.2019.91001 3 Open Journal of Biophysics A. T. Atanasov Figure 3. Cycle of the human consciousness. The wake stage is taken to be basic. The newborn to basic wake stages (REM and St.1, 2) are considered as “conscious states”. 25% are associated to other body factors. In the study of Kimura et al. [9] 68.8% of the NCR tended to be associated with REM sleep and 18.8% tended to be as- sociated to postural change in St.1, 2. The half of these 18.8% NCR are made in “left-right” body position and the other half of NCR are made in “supine” body position. But, it is documented [3] [9] [28] that the “supine” body position does not itself cause nasal cycle reversal, unlike “left” or “right” body position. From these results leads that the NCR can associate not only with postural changes, but also with St.1, 2 of the sleep and “dream-like mentation” in these stages. On Figure 3, the wake state of consciousness is taken to be “basic”, but in in- fants the REM stage appears “basic” state of the brain. In the premature neonates and normal newborns the REM stage can occupy from 50% to 80% of the day and constitutes the main state of the brain. In this case a wake and St.1, 2 are ad- jacent to the major REM stage. For mature peoples the basic brain stage appears an awake, while the REM stage constitutes about 25% of the sleep [29]. 2. Hypothesis The experiments showed that NCR can observe in awake/wake stage, in St.1, 2 and REM stage of the sleep. Just in these EEG stages certain characteristics of consciousness are retained during wake and dream.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Theoretical Models of Consciousness: a Scoping Review
    brain sciences Review Theoretical Models of Consciousness: A Scoping Review Davide Sattin 1,2,*, Francesca Giulia Magnani 1, Laura Bartesaghi 1, Milena Caputo 1, Andrea Veronica Fittipaldo 3, Martina Cacciatore 1, Mario Picozzi 4 and Matilde Leonardi 1 1 Neurology, Public Health, Disability Unit—Scientific Department, Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Neurologico Carlo Besta, 20133 Milan, Italy; [email protected] (F.G.M.); [email protected] (L.B.); [email protected] (M.C.); [email protected] (M.C.); [email protected] (M.L.) 2 Experimental Medicine and Medical Humanities-PhD Program, Biotechnology and Life Sciences Department and Center for Clinical Ethics, Insubria University, 21100 Varese, Italy 3 Oncology Department, Mario Negri Institute for Pharmacological Research IRCCS, 20156 Milan, Italy; veronicaandrea.fi[email protected] 4 Center for Clinical Ethics, Biotechnology and Life Sciences Department, Insubria University, 21100 Varese, Italy; [email protected] * Correspondence: [email protected]; Tel.: +39-02-2394-2709 Abstract: The amount of knowledge on human consciousness has created a multitude of viewpoints and it is difficult to compare and synthesize all the recent scientific perspectives. Indeed, there are many definitions of consciousness and multiple approaches to study the neural correlates of consciousness (NCC). Therefore, the main aim of this article is to collect data on the various theories of consciousness published between 2007–2017 and to synthesize them to provide a general overview of this topic. To describe each theory, we developed a thematic grid called the dimensional model, which qualitatively and quantitatively analyzes how each article, related to one specific theory, debates/analyzes a specific issue.
    [Show full text]
  • Measuring Consciousness in Dreams: the Lucidity and Consciousness In
    Consciousness and Cognition 22 (2013) 8–21 Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Consciousness and Cognition journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/concog Measuring consciousness in dreams: The lucidity and consciousness in dreams scale ⇑ Ursula Voss a,b, , Karin Schermelleh-Engel a, Jennifer Windt c, Clemens Frenzel d, Allan Hobson e a J.W. Goethe University, Deptartment of Psychology, Frankfurt, Germany b Vitos Hochtaunus GmbH, Waldkrankenhaus Koeppern, Germany c Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Germany d Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms University, Deptartment of Psychology, Bonn, Germany e Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States article info abstract Article history: In this article, we present results from an interdisciplinary research project aimed at Received 28 April 2012 assessing consciousness in dreams. For this purpose, we compared lucid dreams with nor- mal non-lucid dreams from REM sleep. Both lucid and non-lucid dreams are an important contrast condition for theories of waking consciousness, giving valuable insights into the Keywords: structure of conscious experience and its neural correlates during sleep. However, the pre- Consciousness cise differences between lucid and non-lucid dreams remain poorly understood. The con- Dreams struction of the Lucidity and Consciousness in Dreams scale (LuCiD) was based on Lucid dreaming theoretical considerations and empirical observations. Exploratory factor analysis of the Emotion Insight data from the first survey identified eight factors that were validated in a second survey Control using confirmatory factor analysis: INSIGHT, CONTROL, THOUGHT, REALISM, MEMORY, Thought DISSOCIATION, NEGATIVE EMOTION, and POSITIVE EMOTION. While all factors are involved in dream consciousness, realism and negative emotion do not differentiate between lucid and non-lucid dreams, suggesting that lucid insight is separable from both bizarreness in dreams and a change in the subjectively experienced realism of the dream.
    [Show full text]
  • Gerald Edelman - Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia
    Gerald Edelman - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Create account Log in Article Talk Read Edit View history Gerald Edelman From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Main page Gerald Maurice Edelman (born July 1, 1929) is an Contents American biologist who shared the 1972 Nobel Prize in Gerald Maurice Edelman Featured content Physiology or Medicine for work with Rodney Robert Born July 1, 1929 (age 83) Current events Porter on the immune system.[1] Edelman's Nobel Prize- Ozone Park, Queens, New York Nationality Random article winning research concerned discovery of the structure of American [2] Fields Donate to Wikipedia antibody molecules. In interviews, he has said that the immunology; neuroscience way the components of the immune system evolve over Alma Ursinus College, University of Interaction the life of the individual is analogous to the way the mater Pennsylvania School of Medicine Help components of the brain evolve in a lifetime. There is a Known for immune system About Wikipedia continuity in this way between his work on the immune system, for which he won the Nobel Prize, and his later Notable Nobel Prize in Physiology or Community portal work in neuroscience and in philosophy of mind. awards Medicine in 1972 Recent changes Contact Wikipedia Contents [hide] Toolbox 1 Education and career 2 Nobel Prize Print/export 2.1 Disulphide bonds 2.2 Molecular models of antibody structure Languages 2.3 Antibody sequencing 2.4 Topobiology 3 Theory of consciousness Беларуская 3.1 Neural Darwinism Български 4 Evolution Theory Català 5 Personal Deutsch 6 See also Español 7 References Euskara 8 Bibliography Français 9 Further reading 10 External links Hrvatski Ido Education and career [edit] Bahasa Indonesia Italiano Gerald Edelman was born in 1929 in Ozone Park, Queens, New York to Jewish parents, physician Edward Edelman, and Anna Freedman Edelman, who worked in the insurance industry.[3] After עברית Kiswahili being raised in New York, he attended college in Pennsylvania where he graduated magna cum Nederlands laude with a B.S.
    [Show full text]
  • Towards a Possible Entropy-Driven Process of Consciousness
    Journal of Behavioral and Brain Science, 2018, 8, 674-696 http://www.scirp.org/journal/jbbs ISSN Online: 2160-5874 ISSN Print: 2160-5866 Towards a Possible Entropy-Driven Process of Consciousness Pierre R. Blanquet1,2 1Club d’Histoire des Neurosciences, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris, France 2Lab. SHERE, Université Paris-Diderot, Paris, France How to cite this paper: Blanquet, P.R. Abstract (2018) Towards a Possible Entropy-Driven Process of Consciousness. Journal of Beha- In the present article, we argue that consciousness and body are not to be vioral and Brain Science, 8, 674-696. separate to explain the intentional consciousness of the human being facing https://doi.org/10.4236/jbbs.2018.812041 to environment. 1) The most neurobiologist and neurocognitivist studies Received: November 21, 2018 suggest that the emerging consciousness appears to be a generic recurring Accepted: December 24, 2018 process which subsumes under it the various results of scientist approaches. Published: December 27, 2018 When analyzed with the cybernetic transductive method of Simondon, this process can be viewed as a noetico-neuronal unit which the sui generis activ- Copyright © 2018 by author and Scientific Research Publishing Inc. ity can be boiled down to concept of intentional consciousness. 2) Homeosta- This work is licensed under the Creative sis can be also metaphorically described as a generic recurring process which Commons Attribution International subsumes under it the myriad molecular feedback loops of organism. This License (CC BY 4.0). self-regulating dynamic process could be governed by the cosmologic (Earth http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Open Access + Universe) production of entropy, which would keep high activity and dis- sipating energy and low internal entropy to maintain an ordering in the or- ganic structure.
    [Show full text]
  • Affective Consciousness: Core Emotional Feelings in Animals And
    ARTICLE IN PRESS Consciousness and Cognition Consciousness and Cognition xxx (2005) xxx–xxx www.elsevier.com/locate/concog Affective consciousness: Core emotional feelings in animals and humans Jaak Panksepp Department of Psychology, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH 43403, USA Falk Center for Molecular Therapeutics, Department of Biomedical Engineering, McCormick School of Engineerings, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA Received 7 February 2004 Abstract The position advanced in this paper is that the bedrock of emotional feelings is contained within the evolved emotional action apparatus of mammalian brains. This dual-aspect monism approach to brain– mind functions, which asserts that emotional feelings may reflect the neurodynamics of brain systems that generate instinctual emotional behaviors, saves us from various conceptual conundrums. In coarse form, primary process affective consciousness seems to be fundamentally an unconditional ‘‘gift of nature’’ rather than an acquired skill, even though those systems facilitate skill acquisition via various felt reinforcements. Affective consciousness, being a comparatively intrinsic function of the brain, shared homologously by all mammalian species, should be the easiest variant of consciousness to study in animals. This is not to deny that some secondary processes (e.g., awareness of feelings in the generation of behavioral choices) cannot be evaluated in animals with sufficiently clever behavioral learning procedures, as with place-preference procedures and the analysis of changes in learned behaviors after one has induced re-valuation of incen- tives. Rather, the claim is that a direct neuroscientific study of primary process emotional/affective states is best achieved through the study of the intrinsic (‘‘instinctual’’), albeit experientially refined, emotional action tendencies of other animals.
    [Show full text]
  • Consciousness, Dreams, and Inference
    J. Allan Hobson 1 and Karl J. Friston 2 Consciousness, Dreams, and Inference ¡ ¥ ¨ The Cartesian Theatre Revisited ¤ ¡ ¢ ¥ ¤ ¤ Abstract: This paper considers the Cartesian theatre as a metaphor ¡ ¨ for the virtual reality models that the brain uses to make inferences ¡ about the world. This treatment derives from our attempts to under- ¨ ¥ ¤ £ stand dreaming and waking consciousness in terms of free energy ¢ minimization. The idea here is that the Cartesian theatre is not ¡ observed by an internal (homuncular) audience but furnishes a thea- © tre in which fictive narratives and fantasies can be rehearsed and ¨ § tested against sensory evidence. We suppose the brain is driven by the ¥ ¦ ¤ £ ¡ imperative to infer the causes of its sensory samples; in much the same ¢ ¤ ¡ way as scientists are compelled to test hypotheses about experimental ¢ ¤ data. This recapitulates Helmholtz’s notion of unconscious inference ¡ and Gregory’streatment of perception as hypothesis testing. However, we take this further and consider the active sampling of the world as the gathering of confirmatory evidence for hypotheses based on our virtual reality. The ensuing picture of consciousness (or active infer - ence) resolves a number of seemingly hard problems in consciousness research and is internally consistent with current thinking in systems neuroscience and theoretical neurobiology. In this formalism, there is a dualism that distinguishes between the (conscious) process of Correspondence: Karl Friston, Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging, Institute of Neurology, Queen Square, London, WC1N 3BG. Email: [email protected] [1] Division of Sleep Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02215, USA. [2] The Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging, University College London, Queen Square, London, WC1N 3BG.
    [Show full text]
  • A Brief Tour of the Introductions to Consciousness Studies
    Epilogue: A Brief Tour of the Introductions to Consciousness Studies That a man should simply and profoundly say that he cannot understand how consciousness has come into existence – is perfectly natural. But that a man should glue his eye to a microscope and stare and stare – and still not be able to see how it happens – is ridiculous, and it is particularly ridiculous when it is supposed to be serious. […] If the natural scientists had been developed in Socrates’ day as they are now, all the sophists would have been scientists. One would have hung a microscope outside his shop in order to attract custom, and then would have had a sign painted saying: “Learn and see through a giant microscope how a man thinks” (Soren Kierkegaard, diary entry of 1846 ) Like a fortress under siege, consciousness has so far resisted any attempts to provide convincing solutions to the many questions it poses. The great neurophysiologist Sir Charles Sherrington (Fig. 1 ) neatly captured the problem of understanding the very nature of consciousness as a phenomenon which appears to elude scientifi c explana- tion within the domain of physical science: “The energy-concept […] embraces and unifi es much. […] Immense as it is, and self-satisfying as it is, and self-contained as it is, it yet seems but an introduction to something else. For instance a star which we perceive. The energy-scheme deals with it, describes the passing of radiation thence into the eye, the little light-image of it formed at the bottom of the eye, the ensuing photo-chemical action in the retina, the trains of action- potentials travelling along the nerve to the brain, the further electrical disturbance in the brain, the action- potentials streaming thence to the muscles of eye-balls and of the pupil, the contrac- tion of them sharpening the light-image and placing the best seeing part of the retina under it.
    [Show full text]
  • Defence of Idealism: Some Questions and Conclusions , London: Macmillan, 1917
    1 May Sinclair, A Defence of Idealism: Some Questions and Conclusions , London: Macmillan, 1917, Extract 1: introduction There is a certain embarrassment in coming forward with an Apology for Idealistic Monism at the present moment. You cannot be quite sure whether you are putting in an appearance too late or much too early. It does look like personal misfortune or perversity that, when there are lots of other philosophies to choose from, you should happen to hit on the one that has just had a tremendous innings and is now in process of being bowled out. As long ago as the early 'nineties Idealism was supposed to be dead and haunting Oxford. I know that the New Realists have said that it is now a fashionable philosophy. But either they do not really mean it, or they mean that only philosophies in their last decrepitude become fashionable at all. [...] I think it may be said that certain vulnerable forms of Idealism are things of the past; and that the new atomistic Realism is a thing of the future; at any rate of the immediate future. But we know of Old Realisms that died and decayed, and were buried, and of New Idealisms that died and rose again. […] And so I think that some day (which may be as distant as you please) the New Realism will grow old and die, and the New Idealism will be born again. It will be born, not out of its own ashes, nor out of its own life only, but out of what is living in the system that for the time being has superseded it.
    [Show full text]
  • Dreams: a Unified Theory Approach Chance Mcdermott James Madison University
    James Madison University JMU Scholarly Commons Dissertations The Graduate School Fall 2017 Dreams: A unified theory approach Chance McDermott James Madison University Follow this and additional works at: https://commons.lib.jmu.edu/diss201019 Part of the Clinical Psychology Commons Recommended Citation McDermott, Chance, "Dreams: A unified theory approach" (2017). Dissertations. 163. https://commons.lib.jmu.edu/diss201019/163 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the The Graduate School at JMU Scholarly Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations by an authorized administrator of JMU Scholarly Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Dreams: A Unified Theory Approach Chance McDermott A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty of JAMES MADISON UNIVERSITY In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the degree of Doctor of Psychology Department of Graduate Psychology December 2017 FACULTY COMMITTEE: Committee Chair: Dr. Gregg Henriques Committee Members/ Readers: Dr. Kenneth Critchfield Dr. Anne Stewart Acknowledgements I would like to thank all of the members of my dissertation committee for their support and guidance in the completion of this work. Dr. Gregg Henriques, Dr. Anne Stewart, Dr. Elena Savina, and Dr. Ken Critchfield, each inspired me to produce my best work clinically, theoretically, and creatively. I benefitted not only through their dedication to teaching and training, but also through the opportunity to observe countless examples their richness of character and warmth of spirit. I would like to express special gratitude to my advisor, Dr. Gregg Henriques, who went above and beyond in his efforts to help me grow as a scholar, clinician, and human being.
    [Show full text]
  • July 17, 2020 a Note on Three Equations for Consciousness
    1 July 17, 2020 A note on three equations for consciousness Alberto Montare Department of Psychology William Paterson University keyworDs: total human consciousness; primary consciousness; secondary consciousness; cosmological psychology. ________ Author may be contacteD at: [email protected] Paper may be cited as: http://hDl.hanDle.net./20.500.12164/3025. 2 Abstract Three new metatheoretical equations for total human consciousness, primary consciousness anD seconDary consciousness are presented. These equations are based on five fundamental entities underlying cosmic evolution: energy, matter, life, minD anD culture. It is hopeD that these equations may have some heuristic value for those workers who wish to appreciate the psychological process of consciousness as an integral part of the whole big picture of cosmic evolution. 3 A note on three equations for consciousness This note presents three metatheoretical equations for human consciousness that Describe: (1) total human consciousness (THC); (2) primary consciousness (PC); anD, (3) seconDary consciousness (SC). These equations are presented in terms of five funDamental, metatheoretical, third-person, psychological intervening variables that interact within human psyches to generate consciousness. The five funDamental variables chosen were: energy, matter, life, minD anD culture. The fundamental principle adopted in this work is that these five entities emerged as the basic interactive realities of cosmic evolution anD that each entity became a part of a new interaction term as the evolutionary antecedent for the neXt higher level of organization. This work is metatheoretical in the sense that it is presenteD here unDer the following Definition that is my combination of the Definitions for ‘metapsychology’ anD for ‘metatheory’ contained in the APA Dictionary of Psychology (2015, p.646): metatheoretical a higher-order theory about theories that involves a concern for the fundamental underlying principles and entities of any psychology.
    [Show full text]
  • Primary and Secondary Consciousness II
    Primary and secondary consciousness – Part 2 1 Feb. 28, 2021 (Documents) On the psychology of primary and secondary consciousness: Part 2 Alberto Montare Department of Psychology William Paterson University ________ Author may be contacted at: [email protected]. Primary and secondary consciousness – Part 2 2 Abstract In this second paper on the psychology of endogenous primary and exogenous secondary consciousness, the differential natures and functions of each of these two levels of consciousness previously examined by Montare (1996, 2000, 2019) were further elaborated. Primary consciousness and secondary consciousness were further examined in this paper as naturally- emergent, psychological-level systems that arise within the hierarchical, metatheoretical cosmological evolutionary framework of five fundamental entities and their interactions: energy (Stage 1); energy-by-matter (Stage 2); energy-by-matter-by-life (Stage 3); energy-by-matter-by-life-by-mind (Stage 4); and, energy-by-matter-by-life-by-mind-by-culture (Stage 5). In this scenario, primary consciousness evolved at Stage 4 and secondary consciousness subsequently emerged at Stage 5. It was suggested that primary consciousness initially arises internally within the individual mind from neuron-to-neuron communications, whereas secondary consciousness initially arises from external, cultural brain-to-brain communications. In conclusion, Summary Table 5 shows an accumulation of 41 distinctions between primary and secondary consciousness drawn from Part 1 (Montare (2019) combined
    [Show full text]
  • “Inner Perception Can Never Become Inner Observation”: Brentano On
    Philosophers’ volume 15, no. 10 1. Introduction Imprint march 2015 Franz Brentano’s Psychologie vom Empirischen Standpunkt has inspired the development of first-order or self-representational theories of consciousness.1 Such theories hold that a mental event or process is conscious if, and only if, it represents itself among other things. For example, Caston (2004, 524) writes: “A perception is directed at itself as “Inner Perception Can Never well as at a perceptible quality in the world.”2 In contrast, higher-order theories of consciousness argue that a mental event or state is conscious if, and only if, there is a distinct mental representation of it — a thought Become Inner Observation”: or a perception — that is non-inferentially arrived at. According to both views, consciousness of a mental phenomenon consists in, broadly speaking, a representation of it. But only the self-representational view Brentano on Awareness and has it that it is intrinsic to a mental phenomenon that it is represented. The higher-order view denies this: a mental phenomenon may be represented by a distinct mental state/event or not. In this paper I will not argue for the self-representational view, but Observation rather explore whether it can be defended against an important objection by developing Brentano’s notion of consciousness “on the side”. Let us start by outlining the objection that calls for a response from the proponent of the self-representational view. The self- representational view is often motivated by saying that it captures how things are for us when we consciously perceive and think.
    [Show full text]